The 14 Best Stardew Valley Mods You Have To Try in 2023

Even though the game itself is over 6 years old, that has not stopped Stardew Valley from topping the charts on the daily. The country simulation role-playing game is going strong to this day and shows no signs of slowing down. But if you’re an existing player, the core concept of the game might get dulled down overtime. The game is not very complex and after years of the same repetitive cycle, you might feel like it’s time to step it up a notch.

That is where mods come in. The following list of mods were carefully selected to cater to players from every aspect of the game. Whether you prefer fishing all day long or want some spicy new portraits, these mods got your back. Some are great additions to the game generally and can help you experience new features that drastically change the way of the game.

Stardew Valley Expanded

Stardew Valley is is pretty extensive on its own, but take that gameplay and add over 27 NPCs, 50 locations, a lot more and that is basically what Stardew Valley Expanded entails. Being one of the biggest mods for the title, Stardew Valley Expanded aims to stick to the main goal of the game, with a few added tweaks.

The mod was created by FlashShifter and is meant to feel like an expansion pack to the original game. You can experience tons of new and improved character backstories plus locations to relive the ‘Stardew Valley’ experience all over again. Although, a new save file is required to run this mod.

Deepwoods

Like Stardew Valley Expanded, the Deepwoods mod also aims to bring in new adventures for veteran players. But unlike the previous mod, this is focused more on creating a new area for players to explore. Now the area is basically a forest where wood is the major growing resources instead of stone. This is what separates it from mines.

Although the forest is fun and looks peaceful, there are many dangers lurking around, which is why it is recommended to explore Deepwoods with friends. The great thing about the Deepwoods mod is that it is created as you progress deeper into the forest, meaning there are no map files. The experience can be different for each player according to combat levels and experience. With several configurable aspects within the mod, it is a major contender for the best stardew valley mod.

Free Love

Bored of the stale old relationships always crowding popular games like Stardew Valley? Not anymore. Free Love is a successor to the previous love-related mod, Multiple Spouses. With Free Love, players can now have multiple partners. You can also have children from different partners and simply increase your house size or rooms if you are lacking space.

This mod gives you much more freedom in terms of romance as you can initiate trivial actions such as kisses and hugs all the way up to initiating pregnancies. Play around with all your relationships to see which fits you the best and is more your level to maximize the fun.

More New Fish

Fishing is a primary attraction in Stardew Valley but can become a hassle to do regularly. Especially with the limited variety of fishes, it is easy to get bored. More New Fish mod adds over 140+ species of fishes to your game. 140 species can seem confusing to newer players which is why Nexus Mods have backed it up with a monthly magazine, outlining some dos and don’ts for fishing.

This should help players navigate this new mod with ease while getting the most out of fishing. And if you don’t like walking to different locations to find fish, that won’t be a problem as fish are now found everywhere. So if you fancy yourself a fishing expert, this mod was made for you.

Elle’s New Barn Animals

Elle’s New Barn Animals focuses more on the farming and livestock aspect of the game. Giving several animals a bunch of new skins, it really puts some life back into the farming livestock activity. You can spice up your barn with over 22 new skins for cows, 18 skins for goats, 14 skins for sheep, and many more.

Aside from that, wool and cloth items would get total do-overs with recolors for both material items. If you’re having trouble with configuring this mod with others you may be using, you can always disable any animal replacement to remove that issue. This mod can help give your barn life a new splash of color.

Anime Portraits

Anime has taken the over the hearts of millions and Stardew Valley didn’t let that go unnoticed. With the Portraits mod, anime fans can now customize their own portraits, anime-style. This spicy mod helps add interest to those boring old portraits as they have both bachelor and bachelorette options.

The portraits have great pixel art work combined with vibrant and colorful splashes to attract more attention. If you are tired of looking at the same picture all day, give this mod a try.

Overgrown Fairy Buildings

Overgrown Fairy Buildings allows you to place some new and improved structures in your world, all from the same style. These buildings include a shed, a mill, and a well. This might not look like much as this is a comparatively smaller mod but the few buildings this mod can add can really add to the aesthetic of a scenario.

If you are worried about losing the mod after upgrades, that doesn’t happen here. Even if you upgrade your shed to a big shed, the mod will remain intact. With all three buildings having the same style, it definitely adds an aspect of beauty to the game.

Loved Labels

Everyone loves petting cutesy animals. We would spend all day doing it but unfortunately that is a bit unrealistic in the real world. While doing it in Stardew Valley, you want to make sure you don’t miss a single one of them because everyone deserves love.

The Loved Labels mod allows users to know which animals have been petted and which need to be petted. This should help make sure all your animals are loved and cared for equally. You can always customize the text to your liking as with any other mod.

NPC Map Locations

This mod doesn’t need much explaining because it name tells you everything you need to know. Searching for NPCs all over the map can be annoying and frustrating at times, especially when you are in a rush. NPC Map Locations reduces that hassle by telling you the exact locations of all the NPCs.

This way, you can simply open the map and go to your desired location without needing to search. The map has also been optimized to be more exact and portray a better picture of the world through the map. 

Bath House Hot Spring

Bath House Hot Spring is an accessory mod for those wanting some extra features added into their in-game lives. Their is a built-in bath house in every world but sometimes bath houses can look less appealing and sort of old. If you want to put your own hot spring in place of the bath house, Bath House Hot Spring is the perfect mod for you.

With this re-imaginative and trendy mod, you can add some aesthetic into your world while keeping all the same functionality. Some players might also find the noise in the changing rooms weird, especially coupled with a hot spring. This mod helps you turn that uncomfortable and weird noise into the pleasant sound of running water.

Chests Anywhere

The Chests Anywhere mod is built solely for player comfort and greater accessibility. Going around looking for storages locations for your items isn’t the most efficient way, neither is forgetting where you kept them and racking your mind to remember.

This mod makes your life easy by showing you where you placed certain items. Not only that, but you can also take out items from chests from any location. A global access to your inventory sounds fun doesn’t it? This mod can definitely make things progress faster and remove the grind.

Tractor Mod

In a game so heavily based around farming and growing livestock/crops, it is a mystery why players don’t have a tractor. Well, Tractor Mod gives you access to a tractor to help with your day-to-day farming needs. Clear twigs, harvest crops, plant grass, and even water your plants while you’re at it.

This all-in-one makes working that much more efficient and slingshots your progress. Some other honorable mentions for functions are fertilizing crops, clearing out weeds, collecting milk from animals, etc. If you love farming, Tractor Mod will become your best friend.

Farmtronics

A quality-of-life mod, Farmtronics is an automated mod that helps automate your farm and lessen the work load on you. Doing all those tedious tasks like watering plants, harvesting crops, and making sure all the environmental factors are ideal is tiring.

Farmtronics allows users to hire a Farmtronics bot, once they finish some preliminary tasks. The bot can do all the tasks you can do, just without the fatigue. If you are looking for someone to look after your farm while you are away, this mod should definitely give you a hand.

Automate

Now we said Farmtronics automates your farm by doing those manual chores. Well, the Automate mod is the next step in that process. While using this mod, players can place chests beside any machine that processes raw materials. What Automate does is it allows those chests to take raw materials from those machines such as furnaces, turn those raw materials into refined items, and place them back.

This can be used in a plethora of instances and machines for example cakes, fruit trees, mills, oil makers, seed makers, etc. Turn on this mod for some futuristic and easy processing.

How to Install Stardew Valley Mods?

If you’re having trouble installing Stardew Valley mods, don’t worry as we will help you sail through the process smoothly. Depending on what platform you’re using, there will be slight changes in the process but nothing too major.

The first step, whether you’re on Android or PC, is to install and run the Stardew Valley application. This allows the game to perform a first-time setup. Once you’ve run the application successfully, you need to download a third-party software called SMAPI.

Mobile users can simply type SMAPI on Google and download the latest APK installer app, we recommend getting it directly from the GitHub. Once its been downloaded, install SMAPI and you’re all set. PC users on the other hand can download the application from here. After the download has finished, extract the .zip file to your ‘Downloads’ folder and follow the on-screen instructions.

Once you’ve downloaded SMAPI, you can go to Nexus Mods’ website to browse all the available Stardew Valley mods. You’ll find download buttons beside all the mods. You should remember not all mods require the SMAPI application. While SMAPI can run most of them smoothly, it will disable mods that are SMAPI-incompatible.

Now you have the mods downloaded on your mobile or PC. Next you need to find the game folder. These will be labelled StardewValley.exe. Make a sub-folder named ‘Mods’ so you can place all your mods in it.

The final step in the process is unzipping the mod files into your ‘Mods’ folder. After this is done, you can launch your preferred mods on Stardew Valley. If the mod is SMAPI-compatible, you’ll need to run it through the SMAPI app while SMAPI-incompatible apps can be run normally.

Remember that you should never open the Stardew Valley app normally as that will not run any mods and will open the original version of Stardew Valley. Always make sure you open the game through SMAPI to enjoy all the fun mods you have downloaded.

Nexus Mods has a huge list so you can see which ones just click for you to make the game more enjoyable. We have included buttons throughout the article that take you directly to that mod’s Nexus Mods page. You can also check out the video below for a helping hand.